This invention relates to a display apparatus for an elevator in which, for example, information in an emergency such as a fire, earthquake or power failure, elevator information such as a guide for a "car full" condition, and general information such as a time or weather forecast are displayed on a display unit disposed in the cage or hall of the elevator.
The period of time during which the users of an elevator are waiting for the arrival of a cage in an elevator hall or the period of time during which they are riding in the cage is essentially a wasteful period of time. In order to utilize this time effectively, there has been proposed an apparatus wherein a display device is disposed in the elevator hall or in the cage, and various items of information (for example, a weather forecast, a piece of news, an advertisement, a show guide and a conference guide), in the shapes of letters and patterns are displayed (hereinbelow, the letters and patterns shall be called "messages"). In addition, there has been proposed a guide apparatus for an elevator such as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Registration Application Laid-open No. 60-100379 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-167871 wherein a cage position, a running direction, a next stopping floor, etc. based on the operating information of the elevator are displayed on a display device to provide effective user utilization of the elevator. Besides, there has been put into practical use an apparatus wherein while being scrolled, time and other guidance information are displayed on a simple display device which can display only ten and odd characters at any given time.
In the apparatus which displays the cage position, running direction and next stopping floor as stated above, the contents change with the operation of the cage. In contrast, as regards, for example, guidance information to be displayed during emergencies such as a fire, earthquake and power failure or guidance information to be displayed when a door is forcibly closed and when the cage is full, the display contents (messages) are almost stereotyped phrases and do not differ in relation to the buildings used. It is accordingly common that a storage device (for example, ROM) fixedly storing the messages to be displayed, has pre-stored in a factory the messages to be displayed. This measure has the advantage that, since the storage devices of the same sort can be fabricated in large quantities, the cost of the apparatus can be lowered.
The prior-art display apparatus for an elevator is constructed as described above. Therefore, when it is requested in some buildings to alter the guidance display messages or the display aspects (i.e., a scroll speed, a flickering display, etc.), instructions for new messages or display aspects are written into the storage device by the use of a writing device. Since the writing device cannot be manipulated freely by anyone, the alterations are made by an expert in the elevator. This has led to the problem that time and labor are expended on the alterations, to raise the cost. Besides, when the above alterations of the messages or display aspects are repeated, they become more troublesome to cope with. It is also considered to adopt the method wherein as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-167871 a freely accessible storage device (for example, RAM) is applied and has messages written thereinto in a site (such as elevator machinery room). Since, however, the expert must write similar messages by hand in most buildings, this measure requires time and labor and increases the cost.
In the guidance apparatus for an elevator described in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-167871, an MPU (micro-processing unit) is disposed on an elevator monitoring panel in a caretaker's room, guidance information items are generated with a keyboard which is connected to the MPU, and the guidance information items are altered after new information items have been acknowledge with a CRT. In case of generating guidance information, the CRT is indispensable as understood from word processors by way of example.
The prior-art display apparatus for an elevator is constructed as described above. Therefore, when the display aspects (such as the speed of a scroll display mode and the flickering period and flickering rate of a flickering display mode) of messages for displaying the guidance information items put into the shapes of letters and patterns are to be altered, it has been considered to merely dispose correction devices such as switches, and it has been difficult to alter the display aspects as desired and to acknowledge the alterations. Accordingly, in a case where by way of example, a caretaker has altered the scroll speed by manipulating one of the switches which specifies "200 msec per character", whether or not a speed which the caretaker himself/herself expects in his/her mind coincides with the speed "200 msec per character" is not known before the caretaker judges it by actually watching a display device in a cage or a hall. Moreover, when the scroll speed of the messages actually displayed is not as expected, the caretaker may have to return to his/her room and manipulate the switches again and then acknowledge the scroll speed in the cage or hall again. Such a situation is not limited to the scroll speed, but a similar problem takes place in case of altering the flickering rate or flickering period of the flickering display mode.
That is, when the speed of the scroll display is altered as described above in the mode in which a character string to be displayed is displayed while being flickered wholly or partly in order to attract the attention of users, there has occurred the problem that the flickering period or the flickering rate of the display fails to match with the scroll speed, so the message becomes illegible. Especially in a case where the display device presents a display in single-character unit, the character string scrolls every character, and hence, the legibility of the character string is greatly affected by whether or not the flickering period or flickering rate matches with the scroll speed.
Meanwhile, observation information items concerning weather conditions such as the appearance of the sky, wind, rain and temperature, or information items concerning the market trends of the price index of stocks, the rate of exchange, etc. have contents which fluctuate with the lapse of time. In case of displaying such information items on the display device, the functions of setting the appearance of the sky, the probability of rainfall, the temperature etc. or the price index, the exchange rate etc. are needed. In order to apply such information items as inputs, the guidance apparatus for an elevator described in the aforementioned official gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-167871 teaches an aspect of performance wherein an MPU (micro-processing unit) is disposed on an elevator monitoring panel in a caretaker's room, guidance information items are generated with a keyboard which is connected to the MPU, and the guidance information items are altered after new information items have been acknowledged with a CRT.
Besides, a display control apparatus for an elevator disclosed in the specification and drawings attached to Japanese Patent Application No. 60-243337 teaches an aspect of performance wherein the contents of elements fluctuating with the lapse of time, such as weather information and market information, are designated with switches.
However, when the caretaker of a building fails to update the contents of the information, untimely information is displayed on the display device. This has incurred the very serious problem that users make judgements based on the erroneous information.